THE PASSING OF THE NATIVE BROOK TROUT. 
BY JOHN D. WHISH, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK. 
Mr. President: I should like to introduce my paper by 
presenting these few verses which seem to me to be interesting 
and appropriate. 
“Where do I get some trout to-day ?” 
Asked the fisherman, blithe and gay. 
The boy looked shy, but he made reply: 
“You don’t catch any this way. 
There aint no trout, not hereabout 
Where the big ones used to be, 
And I guess, if you look at the old trout brook, 
Youll understand why,” said he. 
“There’s a pulp mill up on the river, 
And a tannery further down, 
And the fellows that look at the old trout brook 
Just hustle right back to town.” 
It is the object of this brief paper to state the fact, express 
a behef and cause if possible, helpful discussion. 
My proposition is that the native brook trout, commonly 
called “the old fashioned speckled trout,” and_ scientifically 
known as the Salvelinus Fontinalis, is doomed to become extinet, 
and is even now passing away. My remarks are applied to New 
York state, but there is ample reason to believe that they will 
apply also to several other states. 
This matter has been brought to my attention by letters 
passing through my hands as secretary of the New York State 
Commission, and by remarks of fishermen returning year after 
year from their favorite waters. It is presented at this time, 
not as anything particularly new or startling, but for the purpose 
of making the fact a matter of record, and for the more partie- 
ular purpose of getting the society to discuss the proposition 
along particular lines and with special reference to trout diseases. 
The destruction of wild things is nothing new, however 
regrettable it may be. The American Indian has passed away 
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